Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Notes to Myself: Badass at 76
I bought a bunch of Badass coffee mugs for friends and got these cute little notecards as a bonus. Well, actually I swiped the notecards out of the boxes their mugs came in because I thought I could use them to write notes to badasses I know.
But the cards are probably too small for the U.S. mail, a postage stamp would take up the whole front and besides, how many people want to get a note with Badass written on the front? Maybe the women I gave the mugs to but then the cards would be redundant. You can overdo on the badass business and then you go from actually being badass to being a badass princess which quickly becomes insufferable.
Sort of like getting a badass tattoo. That’s not badass. That’s badass princess.
Myself, I’m committed to being a badass in 2024 in terms of being unexpectedly present and uncomfortably sure of myself. That right there is a bundle of personal power if I can figure out how to use it.
This is all about 2024 being the year I turn 76, the year that puts me clearly and undeniably in the home stretch of my life, the last quarter of the game. I’ve seen other people get to that point and they, some but not all, become stunningly surefooted. Like you look at them and you think, “what happened to your self doubt?” And I bet if I asked, they’d say, “well, it evaporated when I turned 76.”
And then I’d say, “that’s so badass.”
8 Comments on “Notes to Myself: Badass at 76”
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
Thank you for this. I have always aspired to being a bad ass!
I love this and so get this! I started a little book club here with long time friends that I named badass. (books and drinks and samba society). it covers a lot of territory and coming into our own.
YES! Sally sent me a funny card last week saying I was at the best badass she knew. Of course, I don’t think she knows you, Jan… But can I be part of the club, too?I
Seriously? You with your killer poems and sneaky, lethal humor? Yes, you are definitely a badass. Sally is right.
Totally badass.
Says “Ms. I published six books in two years.” You’re Queen Badass.
Thank you so much for this. I’m committing to bad ass as I come up to 74. Is that allowed? A bit early but no time to waste. Please keep on inspiring me, I wish I could meet you
Yes! “No time to waste” is exactly right. 🙂